It must have been around February when our family decided to go on holiday in July to beautiful Tuscany. We had been to the same spot a couple years earlier only this time my uncle, aunt, nephews and niece would be joining us. This would make for a jolly fellowship of ten. The plan was to go there with two cars, my uncle’s and my parent’s. Well I guess that turned out a little different. From to moment the holiday was booked I played with the idea of riding my bike for the whole 1.476 km (922 miles) long trip. But it wasn’t until two weeks before departure that I made up my mind. That also meant I only had two weeks (taking in account my full time job of 5 days a week, this actually was 4 days) to buy additional gear and plan my trip.
The Plan
The idea was to travel as light as possible with my big luggage going with the car. That part went well. Secondly I wanted to take as little highway as possible so I could enjoy the landscapes, curvy roads and really become one with my bike. Boy did I misjudge that last part.
I would depart from Brussels, Belgium ride to Stuttgart, Germany and stay the night there. The next day the plan was to ride from Stuttgart over Switzerland to il Lago de Como in Italy. And then the last day would be the final stretch to our destination: Terra Di Cortona. There was some highway involved but the way I planed my route I would spend most of my time on secondary roads. What could possibly go wrong right?
Just to give you an idea...
The Adventure
20 July 2017, D-day. I was treated to awsome pancakes as breakfast by my girlfriend, to make sure I had all the nutrients and vitamin a human body could wish for. I started my adventure at around Noon. Needles to say I was extremely excited! I took the highway and set course to Stuttgart. I had been on the road for 30 minutes when it was time to fill up the tank, as it turned out I would be doing that quite a lot during my journey. So I pull out of the service station, join the highway again and a few moments later I feel this weird wobble at the back of the bike. My first thought was that some side wind hit me but it just kept on going and that's when I realized something was wrong. I made my way as quickly as I could from the fast lane to the slow one and ultimately exited the highway at the first rest place. Turns out I had a puncture at the rear tire. Yeah, exactly. Not a great way to start of a trip. Luckily after asking a few people if they had an air compressor one Good Samaritan showed up with plugs to repair the tire.
After less then 100km already a flat tire.
A Stroke of Luck
A few phone calls alter I’m in touch with a "nearby" shop that has the right tire size in stock and they are willing to mount it as soon as I get there. In total this set me back 3 hours on my initial planning and also quite a bit on the holiday budget. Huge thumps up too Dynamic Ways Garage for the quick fix!
Luckily the rest of the afternoon went pretty well, I had a good pace on the highway making up for lost time as good as possible and finally I was treated to a beautiful landscape. I had crossed the French border and decided to take a little break.
So pretty
Good Old Nelly
From their on things were looking up, I was riding on the roads I wanted surrounded by a beautiful landscape, no traffic, I was in heaven. But as Nelly Furtado once very wisely stated: All good things come to an end.
When I crossed the border going into Germany shit really hit the fan. Let me clarify because there are a few reasons that led that to this “misfortune”.
Let’s start with navigation. I had no possibility to mount my iPhone, which I was using as a GPS, on mybike. (The mount I used on my previous bike didn’t work with the type of handlebars of my Yamaha R6). So I navigated by remembering the names of towns on my path, the number of intersection and here and there I stopped alongside the road to take out my iPhone from my inner pocket to check. The last one meant finding a good place to stop, take of my glove, unzip the suit, pull out my phone check for directions, putt back the phone, zip up the suit, put the glove back on and I was all set again. I’m sure you can understand that this was pretty time consuming and started to seriously test my patience. Not to mention the one moment where I stopped on the side of the road with my right foot in the moist grass. A car pulled up next to ask if he could help, the moment I leant to the left too hear what he was saying, my foot slipped, causing the weight of the bike to shift too one side. Result: seconds later the bike was laying on its side in the grass. Luckily there was no damage.
I did this many, many times
The next problem I encountered was time. Because of the flat tire I arrived in Germany when it was getting dark. Now I thought the German road and signs would be as efficient as the rest of the country, boy was I wrong again. Being on secondary roads, riding trough small villages and forest for most of the time there were no lights.
So now I was remembering the town names but couldn’t see the signs. See how well this is going to end?
Last but not least, f***ing road diversions. I encountered so many road works I thought I would never make it to Stuttgart. My meticulous planned trip did not take those into account. They kept me riding in circles, which meant I had to stop more often to check for a new route. Now I consider myself a patient and calm person but I was starting to get quite annoyed and ended up cursing inside my helmet. I remember thinking F this and ultimately driving through the construction site, forcing my sports bike to go through dirt and gravel.
I think the caption speaks for its self
Out of The Woods
Finally there it was. The Holy Grail! The first road sign to Stuttgart, the Promised Land!
I was exhausted but this gave me an incredible boost. I was awake again, I was excited. Finally I felt like I was going to reach my destination. And thankfully I did. I arrived at the Hotel at around 1:30 AM, they man at the reception was just going to close up shop so I just barely made it. He must have seen I was exhausted because he offered me his sandwiches so I would still have something to eat. In the end, since he wouldn’t take no for an answer, I settled for a chocolate bar. At 2:03 am it was time too call it a day.
Thank you for reading, stay tuned and follow me as part two will be online next week!
PS: Dear reader, if you made until this bit I suppose you found it somewhat interesting or maybe you just scrolled down to see how long this post was. Anyway since this is my first story / blog I would very much appreciate some feedback so I can improve my writing for the next one. Thanks a lot!
